1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to passwords and more specifically to storing and recovering passwords in a common peripheral.
2. Introduction
Computing devices, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, smartphones, PDAs, and so forth, include security measures requiring a user to enter credentials, such as a username and password, to obtain access to the computing device. However, it is inevitable that at least one user will forget their username and/or password. One approach to recovering this information is to log in as an administrator to reset the password, but this approach often fails because the user typically forgets the administrator credentials or forgets that the administrator account even exists. Another approach is to prompt the user to enter a password recovery phrase, such as “what is your mother's maiden name?” However, users typically enter this information once during account creation and often forget what they entered as the password recovery phrase. Yet another approach relies on biometrics, but this approach is not useful when the user is not nearby the computer or when the user dies, for example.
Many users view the above approaches as too inconvenient, especially if they involve a system administrator. The result is that the user chooses not to use a password or uses a trivial password, such as a short password or an easily guessable password. Especially in the case of portable computing devices, this presents a security risk if an opportunistic thief steals the device. Although it can be difficult to provide both convenient password recovery and security in all use scenarios, one increasingly important scenario involves protecting a portable computing device when a user carries the device separately from a commonly associated peripheral device. If this particular use scenario can be protected and password recovery can be provided in a convenient way, then the user is more likely to use a password, and protection will be increased.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an improved way to recover lost or forgotten electronic credentials, while still protecting the computing device in the common case when it is not with its associated peripheral device.